Tuesday, 16 December 2014

SPOILERS AHEAD. Our merry band of PCs are working their way through the 5th edition starter set.

The Players:

Tholas Longfeather the Chosen, a barbarian outlander and unparalleled fighter. He searches for answers and the unnatural raiders who killed his tribe.

Stepano di Maturin, a former pirate turned fighter. He seeks revenge and a lost comrade.

Fugran Rocksplitter, a former mercenary looking to help out his cousins, the Rockseekers, in their hour of need.

Reed Alderleaf, a former member of the Redbrand gang who has returned to bring some frontier justice to those who tried to murder him.

Riardon Silverlight, an elven wizard and fellow of the Temple of Knowledge in Neverwinter. He has rededicated the lost altar of Oghma in Neverwinter Wood and a new candle of civilisation and reason, however small, burns brightly in the darkness once more thanks to him.

Burgem Gabriel, a cleric of Selune and shepherd to the flock of Phandalin. She seeks to establish a diocese that will bring healing and succour to the folk of the Twilit Lands.

Marker of Thundertree, an archer and folk hero. He seeks to drive out the dragon of Thundertree and thus bring peace and prosperity to his home once more.

Varis, an elven warlock. She seeks to earn the right to bear the mantle of adulthood.

Session 4 begins in the general location of Wave Echo Cave. After a bit of searching the party picks up on a faint rhythmic noise that helps in locating the entrance. There are no tidal rivers in this part of the Sword Mountains but there must be some sort of underground watercourse that resonates through the old mine.

Wave Echo Cave by Mike Schley.

The next discovery is a grisly one, Fugran is chagrined mightily by the sight of his cousin's week-old corpse just inside the entrance. Tharden died ignobly with a knife in his back and Fugran swears vengeance.

Image from Stonehaven's Kickstarter.

The party explore the first chamber and connecting passageways thoroughly, some of them picking up an uneasy sense of being followed. After some attempts at catching sight of whatever is tracking them and laying traps one eagle-eyed PC sees a ripple on the floor and talk turns to jellies. A pouch of lantern oil and a torch rigged as a trap badly wounds whatever it is and it flees back into the maze of tunnels. For now...

The PCs reach a room of feasting ghouls. These weaker runts have been pushed out to the edge of their territory to pick at old bone piles that have been worked over already and subsequently don't put up much of a fight. This leads to near-fatal overconfidence later...

Originally hosted by Rich Green.

Not wishing to leave any potential enemy behind them (in addition to the jelly) the company's fighters insist on scouting out the original, now collapsed, entrance before moving deeper into the mine. With the help of Varis' caution and keen eyes the party avoid a potentially nasty ambush by 20 Stirges. Instead they catch the sleeping bloodthirsty beasts in a magical conflagration as Varis and Riardon combine spells to overwhelm all the enemy at once.

Torchbearer (Stirge-inspired beastie) by Dave Petersen.

Unfortunately, the only reward for such cleverness is two 8 strong columns of skeletons marching in from adjoining tunnels to investigate all the noise! To be fair, the three fighters really did roll very good stats and I have to be quite mean to even challenge the relatively large party. Without the Stirges joining in, the fight is very one-sided and ends with more piles of bones littering the floor of Wave Echo Cave. Fugran tracks down an old pay chest with his dwarven nose for coin and the party are well pleased.

Skeleton Army by Jeff Brennan.

The next encounter is an altogether different affair, the company sneak up on some more ghouls and elect simply to charge in rather than properly use the element of surprise. The last lot of ghouls were weakened runts and this misinformation gives the heroes a false sense of security. As this larger pack of fitter ghouls led by a ghast threaten to wipe out the entire group nervous exchanges between the players turn to outright desperation before a well-timed second wind/action surge brings down the ghast and signals a collapse for the monsters. Victorious (but exhausted and suitably chastened) the group withdraws to rest and recuperate.

Sunday, 14 December 2014

SPOILERS AHEAD. Our merry band of PCs are working their way through the 5th edition starter set.

The Players:

Tholas Longfeather the Chosen, a barbarian outlander and unparalleled fighter. He searches for answers and the unnatural raiders who killed his tribe.

Stepano di Maturin, a former pirate turned fighter. He seeks revenge and a lost comrade.

Fugran Rocksplitter, a former mercenary looking to help out his cousins, the Rockseekers, in their hour of need.

Reed Alderleaf, a former member of the Redbrand gang who has returned to bring some frontier justice to those who tried to murder him.

Riardon Silverlight, an elven wizard and fellow of the Temple of Knowledge in Neverwinter. He has rededicated the lost altar of Oghma in Neverwinter Wood and a new candle of civilisation and reason, however small, burns brightly in the darkness once more thanks to him.

Burgem Gabriel, a cleric of Selune and shepherd to the flock of Phandalin. She seeks to establish a diocese that will bring healing and succour to the folk of the Twilit Lands.

Marker of Thundertree, an archer and folk hero. He seeks to drive out the dragon of Thundertree and thus bring peace and prosperity to his home once more.

Varis, an elven warlock. She seeks to earn the right to bear the mantle of adulthood.

Session 3 began with the players about to clear out the last two areas of Cragmaw castle left unexplored, the easternmost towers. Given his recent service to the God Oghma, Riardon is gifted with a vision of great danger as he approaches the south-east tower. The vision shows him two futures, one of a puzzle being solved and a golden reward, the other of a bloody and ruinous end for the party. After much creeping and listening at keyholes the group open the door a crack and peer through, they discover a mated pair of owlbears being kept for breeding by the erstwhile Cragmaw goblins. Fortunately the PCs quickly toss in some salted beef rations and scatter out of the way as the owlbears emerge. The first encounter resolved without bloodshed! Generous XP all round, not to mention the hidden treasure.

Moving on to the final location (which they knew would contain the Cragmaw boss King Grol thanks to an epic amount of goblin water-boarding previously) they steeled themselves for a much harder encounter. I had Targor Bloodsword in the room waiting to give a report to Grol of his victory over some elves while Neznar's emissary negotiated a price for Gundren and the map. Yeemik was also there, having delivered a much elaborated and embellished version of the events at the Cragmaw hideout to Grol's court.

After another success by Reed in sneaking the door open the fight began with a couple of surprise arrows from Marker and Reed and continued from there to go well for the party. The Doppelganger emissary tried to escape early but was caught and killed. Grol put up more of a fight but his retinue didn't have a lot of luck and he was forced to fight to the death. I didn't try to squeeze too much out of the Doppelganger, mainly because I had some cheeky ideas for a later encounter with one in Wave Echo Cave that I didn't want to undermine but also because I didn't see the emissary having the will to do much else but try and scarper in this situation (with that many PCs piling through the door!).

Grol's loot was divided up and Cragmaw Castle was declared free of monsters!

A battered Gundren was freed and his tale filled in a few blanks for the party. They understood better that the Rockseeker brothers had rediscovered a lost mine and were on the verge of reopening it as a very profitable enterprise when they had fallen foul of a rival, the Black Spider (Neznar). All the bush-whacking, dwarf-hunting and map-stealing by the Black Spider had been to keep the mine to himself as a secret.

The party escorted Gundren back to Phandalin where he took up residence in the Stonehill Inn. An agreement was reached with his cousin, Fungran, that if the party recaptured the mine from the Black Spider and returned it to Gundren the adventuring company would be entitled to a ten per cent stake in the business. Not too shabby at all, so the PCs took to the road once more. On their way out of town they were accosted by a large group of rough-looking ne'er-do-wells, the Redbrands. The general tone from the ruffians was 'don't come back' but I made sure the party were angered sufficiently to want to come back and deal with this lot later.

I am a born-again responsible gamer. My conquest of the Etherweb will be slow, but inevitable.

Mission Statement.

This Blog will be used to revolutionise wargaming, succeeding where others have failed. Oh yes it will! I will teach you all the error of your ways and subvert you to my cause. I am on a crusade to bring back the GamesMaster to all tabletop battles. On the way, I will track my wargaming progress project by project and as a whole, bringing projects to completion and moving on to new challenges. I have moved away from the hollow, charmless gaming that has become a kind of standard thanks to our own complacency and develop a gaming style that encompasses the gaming and role-play values of the 80s and early 90s (my youth) whilst going beyond what that era achieved into exhilarating new realms of fun. I will therefore use the Blog to record my battle and keep on the right course with my overall philosophy in the same way as I fortify my discipline with individual projects. I will use the blogging platform to challenge my painting, modelling and photography skills, though I will not allow the pursuit of high standards to interfere with the deadlines I set myself so expect a mixture of different quality paint jobs, photos et cetera. The aspiration to perfection is always a long term goal, so get stuff done in the mean time. The blog will come in handy for insurance purposes, tremble in fear claims negotiators. I promise not to use the Blog as a vacuous diary, sharing a life which though personally gratifying is possibly outwardly dull. Though I am pretty neat. I will utilise gentle humour often, as is my way, without descending into constant joke-telling. I will not shy away from subtle adult humour and occasional vulgarity (this will not include serious swear words however) though only rarely and in always in context. This is because I like my wargaming to have a moral awareness of it’s real life counterpart (war) in amongst all the fun times. I will not post whilst drunk. I will never review movies, books or anything else for that matter though I may recommend stuff for gaming inspiration purposes and talk about a fun time I had doing something that linked to my gaming activities. I will strive to avoid discussing the world in absolute terms, accepting rather that reality is in the eye of the beholder and that maturity acknowledges variety. I want the hobby to be inclusive and will avoid misogynistic blogger staples such as using pictures of ladies breasts to liven up mediocre posts. I will ask you now once, for the first and last time, to comment and follow if you feel able as these signs of recognition are greatly appreciated. I will never again seek any acclamation for what I’m doing. As a final point, I will make it clear that I thinkGamers, us, ourselves, are responsible for the state of wargaming, NOT Games Workshop, Wizards of the Coast et cetera who despite being in the grasp of vile corporate vampires actually carry out, diligently and with dignity, a worthy and thankless task. If anything goes downhill people are far too quick to blame the governing body, when they should be taking personal responsibility first and foremost. Wargamers of the world, the time for excuses is past, it is time to have incredible fun!